Morning Surprises in the Form of Naked Friends
by books101
Summary: What would happen if only months before her Ordeal, Gary and Raoul walk in on Alanna and Jon in bed in Jon's room one morning.  The rest of the major plot would stay the same, but this is my take on the situation. Characters include Gary and Jon, too.


_A/N: This was something floating about my head that I wrote in bits and pieces over the last few months, whenever I was having writers block for a longer story. I didn't want this to be something that would change the storyline, but I always felt bad for Raoul, that everyone else found out about Alanna's secret some way or another before him. This would take place only months before her Ordeal, after her seventeenth birthday and before that winter. So everything else would progress normally, including Gary instructing her with Jon after the bath._

_Please read and enjoy, and drop me a quick review after to tell me what you think! Even one word will be treasured if you tell me what impression this left on you. :)_

_-Books_

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**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or major plot or setting of this one-shot. Tamara Pierce can claim all ownership for the Alanna series; I only own hard copies of the books. **

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**_Raoul yawned widely and paused slightly as he followed his friend and fellow knight through the quiet and still palace, where everyone was still fast asleep.

HE should still be asleep.

Running a couple steps to catch up to Gary he caught his friend by the shoulder, efficiently stopping his fast pace.

Gary turned to glare at the larger bear-of-a knight. "What?" he snapped.

Raoul took a step back and held out his hands in the silent gesture of peace and submission that one would use with a skittish horse, before speaking in his usual patient and calm manner. "Sorry, Gary, but you woke me up before the crack of dawn and I'm just wondering if you had a reason for it. No need to bite my head off."

While Gary was clever and had a sharp wit and sharper temper, Raoul was almost always relaxed and liked to simply take things as they came. Of course if his temper got lit up then there was major trouble. It just would take a large amount to get him to that point, such as a friend being ridiculed or something unjust happening.

Gary sighed, realizing that he hadn't been paying attention to Raoul besides literally dragging him out of his bed, and that since then he'd been walking with his head in the clouds. He sent a small smile to his friend and ran a calloused hand through his brown curls as he spoke.

"Sorry, Raoul. Really. I didn't mean to snap at you, I've just got a lot on my mind, with court matters and such. I woke you because I thought it might be nice to go on a ride this morning, before Jon and I will be needed in meetings. At least, I know _I _could use some fresh air at the moment. If we wake Jon and Alan then we could have a good few hours to get out of the palace and relax a bit."

Raoul smiled largely, but there was something in his grin that frightened Gary a bit- perhaps the considerable number of teeth showing.

"What? That smile looks dangerous."

"Well, it's just that I don't want to be the one to face waking Alan up. Between his hatred for mornings any day, his temper when the sun's up let alone at this time, that he was required to serve at that banquet till late last night, and how early it is, I'm not counting on you making it out alive. So I'll be watching from a safe distance to record the event for the gossips to share later today." He smiled cheekily at Gary, who just glared in reply and turned sharply around to continue their path to the prince's rooms.

Raoul laughed as he followed his friend's stalking steps. "Aw, don't worry. I'm sure Alan will make it… relatively painless. He _does_ like you after all, though Mithros alone knows why."

"I have no intention of dying." Gary responded dryly, ignoring the second part of his friend's completely useless comment. "In fact, I'll most likely wake Jon first. _He _will be able to wake Alan safely. You know Alan would hesitate at least a moment before killing Jon, unlike us, who would be immediately beheaded. I wonder if he just likes Jon better, or if it's out of fear from taking a Royal life…" Gary mused the last part absently, to Raoul's amusement.

Raoul laughed. "Ok, ok, I admit that's a good plan you have there. And I think it's just because Jon's the Prince, for we all know that _I'm_ Alan's favorite, after all!" They had reached the prince's rooms now and stopped together, though Gary took a moment to roll his eyes and show that Raoul's comment hadn't gone completely unnoticed.

Raoul turned to look at Gary more seriously now. "Do you have a plan? Knocking's not likely to wake him- you know how deep he sleeps. Do you have another way to get…?"

He trailed off, but grinned when Gary pulled a couple of pieces of wire out of his pocket. The young man knelt down and set to work picking the locks. "Remind me to thank George, the next time we see him." He murmured absently, concentrating hard on his task.

Raoul grinned down at Gary. "Sure, but I think he'll know already. About both this breaking and entering incident, and that you wanted to thank him. I swear he knows everything that happens in this whole damn city the day before it actually takes place."

Gary responded automatically, still working on the lock. "I know, but whenever I bring it up Alan just mumbles something about messenger birds. I don't know how George does it and I don't bother asking anymore. I might have been the first to officially meet George, but I was with Alan at the time, and George approached Alan initially. There's no denying that he and Alan are closer than he is to any of the rest of us nobles."

Raoul pondered this. "Yeah, I think that may be where Alan disappears off to sometimes. I know he had to have gotten all those fighting tips he used years ago on those bullies from somewhere, and I know he knows how to use a knife in a street fight. They don't teach that kind of fighting here, and I know George would've helped Alan all he could. Their relationship is strange, but their friendship seems true. I trust George, I know that much for sure."

Gary smiled. "As strange as it is, I do too. With my life, if it came to that." With that comment he heard a _click_ from the inside of the lock mechanism. "Ah," he breathed, "we're in."

Slowly, he eased the door open and peered in cautiously. In the barely dawn light, Raoul could barely see anything in the room past his friend's broad shoulders. By the light coming through the cracks around the shutters of the one window in the front wall, they could see that there was a lump of human body parts and sheets on the bed in the far shadowy corner. Nothing more was visible back there, and there was nothing of interest in the slight light in front. Gary stepped into the room silently and let Raoul follow before shutting the door softly behind them, effectively loosing the bit of light coming through that opening. The two big knights exchanged conspiratorial smirks before heading silently over to the bed. But when Gary was reaching over to pull the covers away from Jon, Raoul quickly grabbed him arm to stop him.

"What?" Gary hissed, annoyed with his friend. "Do you think you have a better way to wake him up than exposing him to the cold air? Because I can't think of one that doesn't need supplies such as a bucket full of water or slugs."

As a reply, Raoul only pointed to the end of the bed. Entwined with Jon's hairy bare calves were two dainty feet- obviously belonging to a lady. Their feet were exposed because the covers seemed to have been pulled far up, covering both of their heads completely. The feet were the only implication that there was more than one person in the bed, and their bodies were closely enough entwined that they passed as one person, with the sheets and blankets jumbled enough to make the mess on the bed indistinguishable. Gary gasped quietly as he saw this, and turned to look at Raoul. Raoul jerked his head to the door.

"Maybe we'd better knock after all- save the lady the embarrassment." He whispered, more quietly than before. They had to be more careful to be quiet now because however deep a sleeper their friend was, they didn't know if the slightest sound would wake the lady.

Gary nodded in agreement, but when they had reached the door again stopped Raoul from opening it with a hand over his friend's on the handle.

"Wait a moment, I'm curious about who this is. We haven't heard any rumors for quite a while after he abruptly dropped the court beauty, Lady Delia, and he wouldn't tell us anything about the girl we assume he's daydreaming about when he drifts off all the time. Even Alan says he doesn't know- he said he couldn't tell us anything! Don't you think, for educational purposes only of course, that we should get a glimpse of the lady before leaving?"

Raoul thought for a moment. On the one hand, Jon would be furious if they were caught snooping in here. On the other hand, they wouldn't necessarily be caught. Their mystery that had been dragging on for weeks and weeks would be solved, and they would have blackmail material on top of that. He grinned rather evilly at the last thought.

"Ok," he whispered back to Gary, "I'm in, but we can't wake them up. It's only for educational purposes, after all, not a reason to get murdered."

They exchanged identical wicked smiles as they made their way on tiptoes back to the bed. Raoul turned to Gary who gave him a 'after you' gesture, so Raoul went to pull back the covers over the pair of lovers.

As he inched them down, he got the sneaking suspicion that he recognized the hair color if the lady- a unique reddish copper- and the forehead shape was familiar too.

_Wait, there aren't any redheaded ladies at Court right now, are there?_

He turned questioningly to Gary who just sighed and pulled the blankets all the way down to the waists of the couple, out of patience with the slow technique Raoul was using. Raoul just shrugged- the more Gary worked with his father and the further he became immersed in court business, the shorter his temper seemed to get.

As both young knights looked over at the bed together now, not even the best intentions of silence in the world could have stopped their mouths right then. Clearly laying curled protectively in the prince's arms was Jon's squire Alan- and his naked body clearly showed them that Alan was not a '_him'._

_ "WHAT THE HELL!" _Both Gary and Raoul screamed together, and it was a testimony to how deeply Jon slept that all he did in response was open one bleary eye to gaze at his cousin and friend, before closing it again and turning over.

The lady, or _Alan _as they now knew, was not so passive. She sat up with a suddenness that was slightly startling and looked around wildly, until she spotted Raoul and Gary.

Then she swore vividly- in a voice scarily similar to the one of squire Alan that they both knew quite well, except slightly higher- in words that she must've learned from George or his people.

When she realized that swearing was getting her nowhere useful, she hurriedly pulled a sheet up to hide her bare body, though looking at her chest was the last thing on the knights' minds. They were still standing in shock, and she must've seen from their expressions that they weren't moving anytime soon.

"_Jon_," she hissed, keeping her eyes on her friends as she reached over and shook the Prince's shoulder. "Jon, c'mon, wake up!" She said it a little louder, but he just moaned a bit in return. "JONATHAN OF CONTE!" She finally yelled directly in his ear, frustrated with no reaction from him.

_That_ finally woke him, and he sat with a jump; his eyes were still mostly closed.

"What?"

"We have guests," She answered sarcastically, causing her regular 'squire Alan' personality to show through. That familiar attitude woke Raoul out of his shock, a bit.

"What in the name of Mithros is this?"

Jon opened his eyes quickly at the voice that was _not_ supposed to be in his rooms at the moment, and spotted the two large knights standing in front of the bed.

"Mithros," he moaned, putting his head heavily in his hands, "it is far, _far_ too early for this."

Alan, or whatever her name was, just glared at him while standing and wrapping herself in the sheet. "I'm going to get dressed. You explain. Just don't tell them anything you'd question about me revealing until I'm back to monitor you." With a last withering glare at the Prince she strode into her connecting squire room, and slammed the door shut.

Jon rubbed his eyes with his fists. "Couldn't you two have knocked? I'm gonna get blamed for this somehow, you know."

That woke Gary up too. "Jon, you do realize your squire is a girl, right?"

Jon laughed. "Yes, Gary. I had noticed."

Gary just shook his head, though anyone who knew him could see the gears turning in his mind. "So that's why, and that's, and when…" he trailed off and whistled sharply. "Wow. A lot of stuff makes a lot more sense, now."

Raoul agreed, thinking of 'Alan's' aversion to swimming, his small stature, his desire to prove himself, his secretive nature, his aversion to ladies… there were so many things that had been oddities before that now all fit together with this revelation.

But something was bothering Raoul, and he looked to Jon with hurt showing in his eyes. "Alan's a girl, and she trusted you with the secret but not us?"

Before Jon could answer a soft voice replied from the doorway to the squire's rooms, where 'Alan' obviously had gotten dressed in record time like knights had to be prepared to do. "I didn't tell him- the Nameless Ones told him when we were fighting them in the black city." She blushed suddenly. "Actually, they just vanished my clothes. That's how he found out."

Jon chuckled. "It was more than a bit of a shock, particularly when we were preparing to battle them and I didn't need any distractions, let alone something that huge."

"And I made him promise not to tell anyone, since no one was supposed to find out in the first place. It was really nothing personal, just the fewer people who knew the safer it would be…." She trailed off as she looked out of the window. The sun was rising now, and people were starting to get up. "Do you mind taking a ride to discuss this? I'm not comfortable talking about it here, where we could be overheard."

Gary and Raoul exchanged cautious looks. "Well," Raoul said slowly, "I guess you'll get your morning ride after all, Gary."

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_A/N: Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! And again, even at the risk of it sounding like pleading (because I admit it is), PLEASE_ _review. I love getting them, and I try to reply to them all._

_The end is going to stop here, and you can assume that their conversation carries on the same way that it does when she tells Gary in the books on their ride together. I didn't think I needed to write what would basically come out to the same conversation._

_Thank you again! Let me know if you have any ideas for creative one-shots for any series related to this. I find one-shots are good for my writing of longer stories, and I actually finish them! ;)_

_-Books_


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